Volume 2, Number 6A
Irish Philatelic Newsletter
Volume 2, Number 6A June, 2000
A periodic publication for the members of the Éire Philatelic Association, the Irish Airmail Society, the Irish Philatelic Circle and the Forschungs-und Arbeitsgemeinschaft Irland e.V. The newsletter will be e-mailed to all interested members.
Published and edited by Michael Connolly
Year 2000 Éire Philatelic Association Annual General Meeting
Each year the ÉPA, puts together a general membership meeting where the officers and members can review the activities of the previous year and plan for the following year. They try to make the meeting more interesting by holding it in conjunction with a major stamp show and plan special activities to make the event more enjoyable for the members attending.
This year was a special occasion since the Association was celebrating the 50th anniversary of its formation. Planning for this AGM started over three years ago and involved many selfless hours of devoted work by many of the members.
The planning paid off!
The Show Venue
The meeting was held during Philatelic Show 2000 at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough, Massachusetts. The show is an American Philatelic Society World Series of Philately Exhibition. The annual show is organized by the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Clubs. Among the member clubs of the Federation is the Connecticut chapter of the ÉPA. The chairman of the organizing committee for the show was John Broderick, Sr., a member of the ÉPA.
The Exhibition
The exhibits at the show required 298 frames,. A total of 114 frames, 38% of all frames, made up 26 Irish exhibits. Among the judges of the exhibition were Joseph Foley and Stephen Suffet, both members of the ÉPA.
Among the non-competitive exhibits to encourage philately were:
“Ireland Overprints”, two frames from the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum
“Ireland: Time of Troubles, 1916-1923”, one frame, Stephen Suffet
“Ireland: The Dublin Horse Show”, one frame, E.G. Bragh
“Ireland: Cancelling in Dublin DUring the 1978 Postal Strike”, one frame, E.G. Bragh
“Irish Zeppelin Flown Covers”, one frame, Robert Doherty
“Gerl Definitive Coil”, one frame, Robert Benninghoff, awarded the ÉPA Single Frame Award.
“Overprint Errors of Ireland”, one frame, Peter Bugg
“Ireland: The English Language Cancelling Machines, 1906-1922”, one frame, E. G. Bragh
The Award Winning Irish Exhibits
Eighteen Irish competitive exhibits were awarded medals.
“Ireland: Postal History: 1661 Through the 1890s”, 10 frames, Patricia Stillwell Walker, Grand Award and …..Gold Medal. Also awarded the Postal History Society Medal, an Irish Crystal Bowl for Best Irish Exhibit and …..the American Philatelic Society Pre-1900 Medal of Excellence.
“Ireland, 1840-1901”, eight frames, Kenneth Magee, Gold Medal. Also awarded the ÉPA Second Place Award.
“Ireland Postal Stationary – 1922-1940”, seven frames, Bernard Clancy, Gold Medal. Also awarded the …..United Postal Stationary Society Marcus White Award and the ÉPA First Place Award.
“Ireland: The Overprinted Stamps of Great Britain 1922-1937”, eight frames, James Maher, Gold Medal. …..Also awarded the ÉPA Third Place Award.
“Irish Coils”, eight frames, Robert Benninghoff, Gold Medal.
“Ireland – The Overprints 1922-1937”, five frames, Johr Lorenzen, Vermeil Medal.
“The Dublin Censor Office: Irish Censorship During WWII”, four frames, Karl Winkelmann, Vermeil …..Medal. Also awarded the American Philatelic Society Research Medal.
“Ireland: Censored Mail During WWII”, eight frames, Paul Wittreich, Vermeil Medal.
“The ABCs of Irish Collecting”, three frames, Micheal O’Conghaile, Silver Medal.
“An Overview of Irish History: 1790-1940”, eight frames, George Nicholson, Silver Medal. Also awarded the ….. ÉPA Irish Book Award for most creative Irish exhibit.
“Irish Uniform Foreign Airmail Rate”, five frames, Karl Winkelmann, Silver Medal.
“Ireland’s First Commemorative”, three frames, Peter Bugg, Silver Medal.
“Revenue Stamps of Ireland”, ten frames, Peter Bugg, Silver Medal.
“Studies of the Low Value Overprinted Issues of Ireland”, four frames, Michael Priestley, Silver Medal.
“Pioneer Airmail Flights of Ireland”, four frames, David Brennan, Silver Medal.
“Railway Letter Stamps of Ireland”, two frames, David Brennan, Silver Medal.
“Carrickmacross, A Reflection of Irish Postal History”, two frames, Paul Wittreich, Silver-Bronze Medal. ….. Also awarded the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors Medal of Honor.
“Irish Commemorative Varieties”, five frames, Myron Hill, III, Silver-Bronze Medal.
Activities
On Friday, May 5, the ÉPA gathered for dinner at the Post Office Restaurant in North Grafton. The restaurant was a fascinating choice in that it was filled with postal memorabilia.
During the show, the ÉPA manned an impressive booth with Irish philatelic literature, a one frame history of the Association and a Court of Honor displaying one page exhibits from children who are members of the Voyageur Club in Ireland.
On Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the ÉPA stand, Michael Kerry and Co. provided music while the Dancers of Erin led by Nancy Reny performed traditional Irish step dances.
The AGM was held at 2 p.m. at the show and was well attended.
At the show banquet Saturday evening, the banquet attendees were treated to the heavenly sounds of an Irish harpist.
Special commemorative covers were prepared and made available at the show.
Then, of course, there was the ÉPA hospitality room which was constantly filled with blarney, Jameson, Bushmill, Guinness and an international mix of good fellowship.
The Foleys at the Post Office Restaurant
The Commemorative Covers
Congratulations
Hans Moxter
1950-2000: 50 Years, “Éire Philatelic Association”
Hans Moxter, ÉPA L412
We all know the proverb that “two is a couple and three is a crowd.” Well, it took a crowd of three on 15th September 1950 when in New York City three collectors of Irish postage stamps decided to found their own club.
William P. Hickey of Providence, Rhode Island, Thomas O’Neil Stack and F.R.A. McCormick of Dublin, Ireland, set out on an adventure that – half a century later – is celebrated by hundreds of collectors in the USA and in other countries. The tree men founded the “Éire Philatelic Association”, better known as ÉPA. In January 1951, appeared their periodical “The Revealer”, and in number one they announced their intention to publish “a list of current cancelling post offices by counties giving Gaelic and English names, also to deal with the slogan postmarks and with Irish revenue stamps.” At the very early stage of ÉPA one can already find a demand for helpful literature and it is with pride that we in Germany note that the list of all Irish post offices and their cancellations was published 40 years later by two ÉPA members, Harald Frank and Klaus Stange, as volume 13 of the FAI literature series. The unforgotten Fred E. Dixon joined ÉPA in 1959 as member 312 and in the same year published for the Irish Study Group “Slogan Cancellations of the Republic of Ireland”, later replaced by “Irish Slogan Postmarks 1918-1994” by Uwe Netzsch, ÉPA 2481, as volume 19 of the FAI series. The Irish revenue stamps have been dealt with repeatedly in articles and supplements to “The Revealer” during the years, and so we can come to the conclusion that ÉPA has fully accomplished what was planned during the early days of its existence. Needless to say that all the time members sought to protrude Irish postal history and philately through writing valuable articles for “The Revealer”, now 217 numbers, and in Germany in the bilingual “Die Harfe”, now already 70 numbers. There is hardly a philatelic community in the world that can boast of a more steady flow of information about its hobby than the Irish collectors. How closely knitted relations among Irland collectors are nowadays can be demonstrated by the fact that Germany has 13 members in ÉPA while 14 FAI members live in the USA, ÉPA has in Ireland 36 members and FAI has 32. By 1974 over 1000 collectors had joined ÉPA during a quarter of a century. 579 active members were on the rolls at that time, which indicates that the society always has to struggle with a certain loss of members be it for natural reasons or for the fact that collectors had tried to become members and found it was not what they had imagined. We are confronted by a certain continuous dropout of new members. This should not discourage ÉPA members. It is a steady flow of collectors and only the best ones, i.e. those who want real information to make use of, will remain with us. And we can be proud of being part of a worldwide network of engaged collectors of Irish postal history items and postage stamps.
Good luck to ÉPA from this side of the Atlantic.
(letter delivered to the ÉPA at the AGM)
Observations
David Brennan
brennan704@aol.com
Peter Bugg, Show Chairman for the Boxborough celebration, worked for three years to put this event together and he did one great job. He nudged many of us to get out our exhibits and show them at Boxborough. Well, he sure did his work, for we had over 100 frames of Irish material plus 16 exhibits from the Voyageur Club in Ireland which were shown in a Court of Honor. Pat Walker won the Grand Award for her exhibit, “Ireland: Postal History: 1661 Through the 1890s”. Besides Pat’s award we had a first time exhibitor, one of our own, Barney Clancy, pick up a gold for his exhibit, “Ireland Postal Stationary – 1922-1940”. Another gold was won by Bob Benninghoff of our Chapter for his exhibit, “Irish Coils”. Karl Winkelmann and Paul Wittreich won vermeils and several silvers also went to our members: Mike Connolly, Paul Wittreich and myself.
The hospitality room was a great success unless you were sleeping in the adjoining room. Some people did not leave until 3 a.m. and that was only after I wound the clock and put the cat out. Our booth was spectacular, made of plywood by Peter Bugg and shaped like al castle with two turrets. Jane Bugg deserves a big hand for seeing that the ladies were kept busy with trips around the area. A tip of the hat to all who worked so hard to make this such a success.
(published in the May 2000 issue of The Emerald Postmark, newsletter of the Commodore John Barry Chapter of the ÉPA)
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